CATAN AND OTHERS v. MOLDOVA AND RUSSIA JUDGMENT SEPARATE OPINIONS 59 JOINT PARTLY DISSENTING OPINION OF JUDGES TULKENS, VAJIĆ, BERRO-LEFÈVRE, BIANKU, POALELUNGI AND KELLER (Translation) 1. In the light of the findings made in relation to Article 2 of Protocol No. 1, the majority takes the view that there is no need to examine the complaint under Article 8 of the Convention or the complaint under Article 14 separately. We can certainly understand that in some cases, either where the judgment has dealt with the main legal issue or where the complaints coincide or overlap, the Court should take this approach, which could be described as procedural economy. In the instant case, however, it appears to us to be unduly reductive, giving an incomplete picture of the situation and the consequences it entails. Article 8 2. We believe it is important to stress that the right under Article 8 of the Convention to respect for private and family life, in both its individual and social aspects, encompasses the right to the recognition of one’s language as a component of cultural identity. Language is an essential factor in both personal development and social interaction. 3. The 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child expressly provides that a child’s education should be directed to respect for the identity, language and values of the country in which the child is living or from which he or she originates (Article 29 § 1 (c)). 4. From the standpoint of private and family life, the applicants’ argument that the imposition of an alien script was aimed at undermining, and even eliminating, the linguistic heritage of the Moldovan population and in a sense forcing them to adopt a new “identity” unquestionably has some force and merited separate examination. This is particularly true since the issue at stake concerns the children’s intellectual development – a matter which clearly comes within the scope of private life – in a society which speaks the same language but writes it in a different alphabet. The risk of impoverishment of this linguistic and cultural identity cannot be ruled out. 5. A further consideration arises, likewise linked to the lives of the families and the interaction within them using their common language. Let us take the example of a letter, email or text message written by the parents in Romanian, using Latin script, to their children, who learn Romanian using the Cyrillic script: being required to write the same language in a different alphabet could conceivably, in some circumstances, give rise to difficulties in communicating.